As a retired K-12 teacher and member of a community makerspace called Makersmiths, I volunteer as an educational liaison, working with families seeking opportunities for their children to become involved in STEM activities. One of Makersmiths initiatives is the KidWind-Virginia Challenge. During the 2018-2019 school year, I volunteered with two other Makersmiths members to … [Read more...]
Get Your Game On With Scratch
Have you always wanted to learn more about programming for yourself and to better support your students? VSTE is offering the PERFECT opportunity! Bea Leiderman, Scratch pro and technology coach, will provide a hands-on, minds-on learning summer learning experience: Game Programming with Scratch. Over the course of three weeks, participants will code a paddle-and-ball game … [Read more...]
How I Became a Believer in Maker Education
My first experiences with maker education came while serving students at a juvenile detention center as an Instructional Technology Coach. I knew that maker education had the potential to empower our students and transform how they experienced learning. Then, one student made me a believer. One August, we had a 17-year-old male enter our facility. He was a newcomer to the … [Read more...]
Implementing a Robotics Competition in Your Classroom
Robotics competitions are currently at the forefront of our ever-changing technological world. In the modern day, it is important to learn skills that will help your students navigate the shift from traditional, old-school technology to newer and more advanced tech. Robotics competitions can wake up the leader that each student has inside and can strengthen various abilities … [Read more...]
Leveling Up Student Learning with a Global Inventors Course
This year, we tried something completely new at Oak Grove Elementary in Roanoke County. Fifth graders have just finished working with Global partners in Nicaragua, Argentina, and Honduras through a Global Inventors course run by Level Up Village--and what an adventure it was. In this course, students exchanged video messages with their partners and collaborated on designing … [Read more...]
